Paperwork

I’ll start with last night, when we got a thick envelope in the mail containing Pudding’s occupational therapy notes from last year. I was a little baffled, until I read the enclosed note saying that our insurance hasn’t paid them for services since last July, and if the account isn’t settled in the next month, we are responsible. Can I mention at this point how I made Pudding leave her beloved first OT who was trained in Floortime, and had an awesome connection with our girl, to go to this one just because it was an “in-network” provider and we’d be able to avoid insurance hassles. And even though I have to make a 42 mile round trip, and even though my girl’s progress has slowed markedly, we kept going. For a year. That we might have to pay for in full.

So now, weeks before moving, I had to sort through all the insurance paperwork to sort out what is going on with them, and hope we can resolve it quickly. Because the last thing we need to do right now is pay for a year’s worth of therapy.

Or shall I talk about the ongoing saga of the paperwork of a Foreign Service child with four diagnoses? How every time we apply to a new school, or doctor, or therapist, we have to fill out form after form requiring the same information? How we have to apply to many schools, because the American or International Schools can’t decide if they will take her until they’ve seen the paperwork. The school’s paperwork, not the thorough expert evaluations we’ve had done in preparation, and offer to digitally send. No, that would be too easy. Paperwork with question after question about what is wrong with her, and never the space for me to talk about all that is right. So she gets turned down on the basis of paperwork that doesn’t have a hope of describing all she can offer.

Perhaps I’ll talk about my other child. My grey-area kid who has shown some, but not all, signs of autism since I learned what to look for almost two years ago. Who has been in a sibling study since the age of ten months that measures every aspect of development, then presents me with a report every few months. And then evaluated for his OT and PT services through Early Intervention. How we’re still unsure, so we took him to a Developmental Pediatrician to take a look at him. And now he has entered the public school system. We have masses of paperwork on the boy, but we still aren’t certain what is going on with him. It will take time and more paperwork to figure him out, I guess.

I think I’ll just leave you with the thought that we have all this paperwork and we can’t keep it together. Our girl gets into our filing cabinet, and drawers and folders, and it gets drawn on, or cut, or ripped. The chance of it getting lost during moves pales into comparison with it getting destroyed on any given day at home. The most important things, the IEPs, the reports and evaluations, get digitally scanned so we always have an electronic copy, just in case. When we move we’ll have it with us, so we can just print it out again if necessary.

Just when we think we might have found a solution to our vulnerable paperwork, Pudding expresses an interest in computers, and I realize how simple it would be for it to all disappear. If only I could make all the paperwork disappear for good, I’m tempted. But then thinking about all we’d have to go through to get replacements…..you know it would take even more form-filling.

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7 Responses

it only recently occurred to me scan all of the paperwork so that we at least have a digital copy. i can only imagine how many forms you have to fill out for being overseas. ugh! and your insurance hassles sound painfully familiar.
hugs to you.

Your saga bothers me a lot (although a lot less than you, I’m sure). I am miffed at the unfairness of form-filing-requirements. Completely inconsiderate.

Here’s my question: based on the results (results w/ emphasis) what price would you put on that year’s worth of OT? What was it worth to you? Billing you after a year – also very wrong! They should have notified you after the first 2 denials. If you are looking for a place to complain, consider contacting your state OT licensing board.

It is a strange one. They requested notes from the PT (which they sent, twice) but it was actually medical notes they were looking for. Regardless, we’re supposed to have up to 75 sessions (ST/OT) a year even without a diagnosis on our plan, so I’m puzzled by them in this case. They pay our other providers no questions asked. I think someone just made a mistake…which just happens to be bad timing for us. I don’t blame the OT, though they could have mentioned it whenever I made the copay and asked about the account being up to date!